Hearing about 'balancing' about made me want to vomit. They are expected to change DRAMATICALLY, taking steps forward to help the total household earning potential (or necessity) and men (again, in general) are staying put, not helping them! Now women are taking a step from an urban household, out into the working world, and have no such assistance from men at home. Realizing the step down from an agrarian household, to a urban household caused a major cultural shift for men, and they had their wives at home building a bastion for them against these new outside forces of a modern, foreign world. I truly appreciate the book opening my eyes to a few of these things. Outside cultural forces: male privilege, male dominated society, and a devaluation of the second shift among them seem to actually be the biggest impediments to a happy marital life. Communication, or lack thereof, seems to be a prevailing issue amongst most of these couples who have issues on the second shift. I cannot believe the lack of communication that occurs between some of these couples and feel blessed to have entered a marriage based on communication as a major if not the penultimate resource for surviving and thriving together. I found myself shaking my head at many of the men in this book, and a few of the women. We do not currently have children, but we plan to in the future. I chose this book because it seemed to have a very direct bearing on my current life situation.

I picked it up off of her bookshelf as I want to learn more about Sociology, her field.

I cannot stress enough, my wife DID NOT urge me to read this book. While there are various issues with the sampling (all one company, all one geographical area, etc, which she does disclose at the end of the book) I think she arrives at very correct conclusions. This book is a sociological study about how men and women share the 'second shift', the time and the work put in at home in terms of both house work and child rearing. I truly think every married man, newlywed or otherwise should read this book.

Arlie russell hochschild books